What's the point of tanto blade on small folder?

stabman said:
I read this all the time, but the truth of the matter is that they truly suck at stabbing.
Go ahead and try them out. Daggers work way better, as do trailing points and many other styles.

They're better at scraping paint than stabbing.

This has been a message from your friendly local stabaholic. ;)
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Depends on how they're designed, IMO. Different companies tend to have a wildly different take on the tanto shape.
 
The reason tanto blades are good for stabbing is they have a stronger tip that will not break as easily, not that they necessarily pierce better. A thin and pointy dagger will pierce more readily than a tanto, but there is more likelihood the tip will break.
 
stabman said:
I read this all the time, but the truth of the matter is that they truly suck at stabbing.
Go ahead and try them out. Daggers work way better, as do trailing points and many other styles.

They're better at scraping paint than stabbing.

This has been a message from your friendly local stabaholic. ;)
Click to expand...

I think the idea behind it is that pretty much any knife with a tip can easily penetrate things with sufficient force but the don't always survive the ordeal (eg: car hoods) and tantos are there to fulfill that niche (eg: people who like stabbing car hoods for whatever reason).
 
jstn said:
The reason tanto blades are good for stabbing is they have a stronger tip that will not break as easily, not that they necessarily pierce better. A thin and pointy dagger will pierce more readily than a tanto, but there is more likelihood the tip will break.
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It depends on who made it, honestly. Cold Steel popularized the tanto design, and the way they do it offers exceptional tip strength and piercing power. A few others get it right, but I think a lot of companies make terrible tantos, with swedges that detract from tip strength, serrations where they don't belong, and weird shapes that seem to reaffirm they're selling it because it looks cool and not becausekit performs better.
 
midnight flyer said:
For 40 plus years I have dismissed tanto blades as the tools of traditional martial arts practitioners and mall ninjas.

Recently, I acquired a KaBar Utilitac 2 tanto style with a fine edge. This thing literally came sharp enough to shave hair. That got me to thinking, how useful would this be in my chores as a finish carpenter? Well, pretty doggone useful.

I can sharpen my pencils, open packages and boxes and cut up materials with the flat of the blade. But that super sharp, flat point makes an excellent trimmer of molding, splinter cutter, and when I am mortising hinges it works as well as my chisel (better?) for inside cleanup of the mortises of hinges and locks. Had I not gotten the "fine edge" model I never would have thought to use it for such practical use. I love it; it is like having a portable chisel in my pocket.

Can't believe it took me so long to figure that one out...

Robert
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That all makes a lot of sense, and you're the first carpenter I've had a chance to talk to about this. Have you tried CRKT's Stubby Razel folder?

Here are the specs:
Specifications:
Overall Length: 5.25"
Blade Length: 2"
Cutting Edge: 2" main, 0.923" tip
Blade Thickness: 0.13"
Blade Steel: 8Cr13MoV, HRC 58-59
Grind: Chisel
Closed Length: 3.25"
Weight: 4.4 oz.

I have one and it seems to work pretty darned well, but I'm an engineer, not a carpenter.

Never mind. I finished reading the thread. :)
 
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Kwon Kwang said:
It depends on who made it, honestly. Cold Steel popularized the tanto design, and the way they do it offers exceptional tip strength and piercing power.
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Funny story-Cutlerylover on Youtube decided to test the tip strength of 2 knives by stabbing a quarter(...). One was a Spyderco Tenacious, one was a Recon 1 Tanto. Of the 2, one of them came out undamaged, one of them had a broken tip. Know which one had a broken tip? Hint-it was a tanto. Yes, I realize stabbing quarters is, well, dumb, but still, when the tanto gets outperformed in tip strength by a non-tanto, it does make me wonder.
 
DShiflet said:
Funny story-Cutlerylover on Youtube decided to test the tip strength of 2 knives by stabbing a quarter(...). One was a Spyderco Tenacious, one was a Recon 1 Tanto. Of the 2, one of them came out undamaged, one of them had a broken tip. Know which one had a broken tip? Hint-it was a tanto. Yes, I realize stabbing quarters is, well, dumb, but still, when the tanto gets outperformed in tip strength by a non-tanto, it does make me wonder.
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I saw that test. The very tip was damaged (so little that the user could fix it themselves), but not the point as a whole - the point as a whole was still very usable. I own both knives. Comparing them side by side, the tanto has far more metal near the tip, whereas the Tenacious tapers. If the blades were to endure a serious shock of some sort, bringing the knife to breaking point, the Recon 1 would survive with more point left than the Tenacious.

Here is a test done by Andrew Demko comparing the Master Tanto with the Gerber Mk. II and a traditional tanto.

[video=youtube;bYozOCQM7CI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYozOCQM7CI[/video]

In that test, too, the very tip, a minuscule amount, snaps. Guess which knife out of the three still has the strongest point overall.
 
A tanto to me is a straight razor with a chisel at the end, usually just use the razor part for cutting tasks, and the chisel part for opening boxes and scraping, most of the time don't use the chisel portion so I only sharpen the razor portion. Like having two knives in one. By the way the knife I EDC with tanto blade is the CQC7B.
 
jonathan13 said:
I find that the secondary tip on the tantos rock at box opening
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+1 I was going to say the same exact thing about plastic "clam shell" packages You just run the secondary tip along it and presto, it open without to much damage to the contents.

I had a crappy CRKT M16 EDC with a 3" Tanto blade. I too have used the forward edge as a scrapper and a flathead screw driver. I abused the heck out of it for 2 years until the handle literally fell apart in my hands when two assembly screws sheared off, but the blade edge still looked fine. It never chipped or broke.

CRM16-10KZ.gif
 
i AGREE 100% ...

It dosn't matter who makes them, it matters what style of a blade they have... period...
If a company takes on a differnt style then.. it isn't a true tanto...

A true tanto isn't the best piercer!.. it merely has a stronger tip... which... in a knife isn't the thing you should be looking for... might as well carry an over-sized pry bar at that point...

A knife is made for Slicing and dicing!.... not stabing and piercing and car hoods and cement bricks...



stabman said:
I read this all the time, but the truth of the matter is that they truly suck at stabbing.
Go ahead and try them out. Daggers work way better, as do trailing points and many other styles.

They're better at scraping paint than stabbing.

This has been a message from your friendly local stabaholic. ;)
Click to expand...
 
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